Lot 29
MARGARET UYAUPERQ ANIKSAK (1905-1993) ARVIAT (ESKIMO POINT)
Standing Woman with Skin Bag, c. 1967-68
stone, skin, and sinew, 8.25 x 4.75 x 1.25 in (21 x 12.1 x 3.2 cm)
signed, "ᐅᔭᐅ".
ESTIMATE: $1,200 — $1,800
PRICE REALIZED: $1,440
Provenance
Private Collection, Toronto.
I see myself in the carvings, having poor clothing… I try my best to make the image as close to a real person as possible. I try to show what the person is wearing and what they are doing.
— Artist interviewed by Ingo Hessel, 1989
Unlike many of her Arviat artist peers, Margaret Uyauperq aimed for a relatively high degree of naturalism in her work. Even in this quite early example by Uyauperq we see a figure of a woman standing with limbs extended and details of clothing delineated to the fullest extent possible; the wind-blown parka hood is a beautiful added touch of realism, as is the skin bag the woman holds.
Reference: for a larger but similarly styled contemporaneous work by Uyauperq depicting a woman carrying a shoulder fishing pouch, see Cynthia Waye Cook, Inuit Sculpture in the Collection of the Art Gallery of York University (Toronto: AGYU, 1988), cat. 1.